Salesman hopefuls should watch for possible cons

Sue Thackeray

Published 6:00 pm, Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Girven Brown immediately started searching the Internet for information about traveling magazine sales.

"That's when I came across the 'Inside Edition' story talking about how these kids are being exploited," Girven Brown said. "I sat my son down, had a long talk with him, made him read through all this information, and it took a lot of convincing, but he's not going anywhere."

The classified job advertisement stated hired employees would travel to New York, Los Angeles and other major cities.

The job requires sales representatives to go door to door, selling subscriptions to popular magazines.

Justin Brown went to the job interview Tuesday in room 103 of the Days Inn motel on Interstate 45 in Conroe after responding to a classified ad promoting "awesome jobs" in a "young rock-n-roll blue jeans environment."

That "rock 'n' roll" environment is what Girven Brown said his son was promised by the recruiter.

"There was a real pretty girl telling them how much fun they would have and how much money they would make," Girven Brown said. "She told them they would party every night in the motel, and not to worry about the fact that he wasn't 21, they'd get him a fake ID."

"I can tell you one thing, the person that told him that is going to be fired," said Vincent Pitts, the president of Palmetto Marketing Inc., the company Justin Brown would have been working for. "I'm absolutely shocked to hear that. The recruiter must have been in a desperate situation to get people signed up and basically said that to the kid to lure him in."

Melissa Quinn, who was at room 103 of the Days Inn and is the contact person for the advertisement, said her statement to Brown was "taken out of context."

Pitts said his company contracted with Kiper Sales out of Houston for the local recruiting. The Courier could find no contact information for that company.

Quinn, however, said she was employed by JC Sales out of Coral Springs, Fla, the home base of PMI. No telephone number could be found for JC Sales, either.

Three Conroe Police Department detectives visited the motel Wednesday afternoon and informed several people arriving either for interviews or for their trip out of town about what they were getting into.

"They're not breaking any law by coming in here and offering these kids a job," Conroe Police Lt. Russell Reynolds said. "But we would absolutely recommend that these kids don't go."

Steven Champagne, 21, of Willis, had his bags packed when he showed up at the motel about 5 p.m. Wednesday. He had interviewed with Quinn earlier in the day.

"I was ready to go," Champagne said. "It sounded good, but the way the detective explained it didn't sound so good."

An "Inside Edition" producer went undercover at Pitts Sales, also owned by Pitts. The TV magazine's report stated that "hidden cameras caught verbal abuse, cursing, ranting and raving by a crew leader when sales were considered low." It also reported that sales representatives were out until 11:30 at night and that punishment for low sales included sleeping on the floor of a hotel room and the abuse was sometimes physical.

Palmetto Marketing Inc. has an "unsatisfactory record" with the Better Business Bureau for failure to deliver the promised products and a pattern of complaints alleging misrepresentation by the company.

The BBB Web site warns that anyone considering working with such a company should "obtain the following in writing: name and address of the company; details about travel, food and housing; commission rates and bonus programs; salary amount, who keeps track of it and how it is paid out; how friends and family can contact you and who arranges for transportation home."

There are more than 200 complaints against the company posted on www.badbusinessbureau.com. Many of those are from customers who claim they never received the magazines they ordered from young adults posing as high school or college students.

"Inside Edition" reported that many of the sales pitches are often untrue.

Two former employees of Pitts Sales also told "Inside Edition" that drug and alcohol use was common among sales representatives and their managers, a claim Pitts denied.

Quinn said she had been in the Conroe area for "a couple weeks" recruiting but indicated to detectives that she would soon be leaving, Reynolds said.

Pitts could not say how many sales representatives his company had working throughout the country.